16 minute mile - Strictness

[GNRMatt]

For runDisney 10K's and half marathons, how strict are they about keeping up with the 16 minute mile pace and kicking stragglers off the course?

 

[goingthedistance]

This comes up often. They can and will pull people from the course who fall behind the official sweepers. There are some threads on people who have been swept. Officially the only place a runner is safe from being swept is the finish line. Unofficially there are some places a runner is "safe" but still needs to keep moving forward. The 16 minute pace starts with the last runner to cross the start line, so people in earlier corrals get a bit more of a buffer. Disney suggests training at a 15 minute pace.

My advice is to trust yourself, trust your training, keep your own time and pace. If you do that you will not have to worry about sweepers.

 

[Barca33Runner]

For runDisney 10K's and half marathons, how strict are they about keeping up with the 16 minute mile pace and kicking stragglers off the course?

This is a tough question. As was previously mentioned, rD can and will pull people from the course who fall behind the sweepers. They do not, however, monitor individual times or withhold medals from finishers who finish outside of the 16:00 pace. It is my belief that rD does not want to sweep anyone and gives everyone their best chance at finishing the distance.

 

[WhereInFlorida]

And don't forget the drones that WDW have developed that can track you by your bib and strategically remove you at any point along the course (for slow pace, taking too many gels, dropping banana peels on the course, drinking too much along the course, etc)... unless you have a mylar wrap around you.

 

[crewmatt]

So runDisney isn't cruel about it, but they are relatively strict. But its not out of meanness, its out of necessity. Incase you've never seen whats following the actual last batch of runners in the race, its really quite a sight to behold. I'm one of the faster runners (or used to be till I broke my foot so lets see how this recovery goes), so one of the cool things about the half marathon is that we can be finishing while the main group is still heading towards the highway. Additionally I've gotten food poisoning and had to wait out one of the marathons in the med tent.

So about 1/2-1 mile behind the last runners in the race there's this small army of trucks and workers, literally cleaning up the marathon right behind the runners (just out of sight as to not ruin your experience). Cleaning up cones, water cups, etc. I literally watched them break down and clean up a water stop in a couple minutes. Like it was never there.

The sweepers are just before this group, so what they'll normally do is have a few checkpoints on the course where they'll have a someone with a clock. If you're behind the time, they'll stop you up at those checkpoints. Now if you make it past the last checkpoint, you're free to finish. I believe however if you do finish above a 16 min mile they give you a DNF. But you still get the medal for finishing. I'm not sure where they would sweep in the 10k, but I would assume there will be 1 right before you enter epcot at mile 2.5 - 3, and then probably one more just outside of the yacht/beach club on your return loop. The halfs would depend on their courses, but likely just before you enter the last park.

 

[Ariel484]

I would highly encourage any participants worried about keeping pace to make sure they can confidently finish shorter distances under pace before moving on to longer races. If you're worried about keeping 16:00/mile for the half, then don't sign up for the half until you have done a couple of 10Ks successfully. Or don't sign up for the 10K until you have done a couple of 5Ks successfully, etc.

The gains in speed will come in time as you continue to train, but the race won't be any fun if you're constantly worried about getting swept.

 

[cavepig]

I believe however if you do finish above a 16 min mile they give you a DNF. But you still get the medal for finishing. I

If you finish above the 16 min/mile you don't get a DNF. As long as you finish your result is listed no matter what your time is.

 

[wilkeliza]

They are strict based on their own rules. Even the balloon ladies have been swept once or twice so still only use them as a guide and not a I'm safe. If a race official tells you you are over the required pace and if you see them you are still over the pace then do not trust if you see the balloon ladies are behind you. There are hard sweeps and the mile (or half mile can't remember) before you will get a warning form race officials if you are behind pace. At these hard sweeps they will have the official official pace bike riders out on course. If you are in front of them you are fine but if you are behind them even just barely behind them they will cut you off at the next mile marker and put you on the buses.

They are very very nice about being swept, it can be full of anxiety being that close (I had it happen at 1 race) but the group that far back including the pacers are very very encouraging and will try to push you along to get the speed up a little. In my case I twisted my ankle in at the splash and dash aka Wine and Dine 2014 my very first half. I was in so much pain that I should have probably pulled myself medically but my pride wouldn't let me. I was crying and limp running and went from a decent pace to about an 18/20 minute pace. Of course the pacers caught up to me but I was encouraged the entire way and always stayed in front of them and was able to finish. Somehow I still managed an under 16 min mil over all (I guess that's what happens when you are doing 12-13 min miles before you get hurt) so it wasn't that bad but I could have slipped past the pacers.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I want to add to make sure that you measure your overall pace by how long it takes you to finish a mile including any and all character stops, photo stops, restroom breaks, etc. So if with all those stops it takes you 30 minutes to finish a mile, that's your time. You don't want to be swept because you misunderstood how the time works.

This does not mean that if you have a slower mile that you will be swept. You just need to make sure that you are ahead of the sweepers at all times. Course congestion during this year's Star Wars 10K gave me a first mile of 20 minutes. Suffice it to say, once the congestion cleared up, my time got better and I was just fine.

 

[GNRMatt]

Thank you for all the feedback...much appreciated!

 

[Ariel484]

I want to add to make sure that you measure your overall pace by how long it takes you to finish a mile including any and all character stops, photo stops, restroom breaks, etc. So if with all those stops it takes you 30 minutes to finish a mile, that's your time. You don't want to be swept because you misunderstood how the time works.

This does not mean that if you have a slower mile that you will be swept. You just need to make sure that you are ahead of the sweepers at all times. Course congestion during this year's Star Wars 10K gave me a first mile of 20 minutes. Suffice it to say, once the congestion cleared up, my time got better and I was just fine.

^^a lot of people forget this. If you have a Garmin, make sure the "auto pause" feature is turned OFF to measure your true overall pace.

 

[bumbershoot]

I want to add to make sure that you measure your overall pace by how long it takes you to finish a mile including any and all character stops, photo stops, restroom breaks, etc. So if with all those stops it takes you 30 minutes to finish a mile, that's your time. You don't want to be swept because you misunderstood how the time works.

^^a lot of people forget this. If you have a Garmin, make sure the "auto pause" feature is turned OFF to measure your true overall pace.

oh gosh YES to both of these.

January Half marathon 2014 I was sick sick sick as a dog. I was slow. I was hurting. I was in the portapotties b/c the lack of real food (at one point I ate a pint of haagen dasz ice cream for a day because it's all I could taste or deal with...not a great way to fuel for a run!) had messed with me. And I had autopause on.

I can't remember when I realized the problem (I couldn't believe how relatively well I was doing!) but it was very emotionally jarring to realize that I was going so much slower than I thought.


Autopause OFF! Pause your music, pause your ZombiesRun app...but don't pause your watch EVER. The official clock won't stop, so yours shouldn't either. (training as well)

 

[Sleepless Knight]

^^a lot of people forget this. If you have a Garmin, make sure the "auto pause" feature is turned OFF to measure your true overall pace.

After I ran the 2015 Star Wars 1/2, I heard of some very disappointed runners who were swept because they did not calculate character wait time into their pace. They thought that they were keeping pace because they were well above pace when they were actually running, but did not understand that time spent stopped on the course is a part of your overall pace. So if you waited 30 minutes for 1 character in mile 2 and then ran a 9 minute mile to mile 3, your actual pace was 39 minutes for mile 2.

 

[jhorstma]

I would highly encourage any participants worried about keeping pace to make sure they can confidently finish shorter distances under pace before moving on to longer races. If you're worried about keeping 16:00/mile for the half, then don't sign up for the half until you have done a couple of 10Ks successfully. Or don't sign up for the 10K until you have done a couple of 5Ks successfully, etc.

The gains in speed will come in time as you continue to train, but the race won't be any fun if you're constantly worried about getting swept.

This is great advice! Running 10Ks will also give you the chance to establish a POT that, if fast enough, will get you into an earlier corral, giving you a time/pace "buffer" that will decrease course congestion and lines for you and give you greater flexibility to plan out which stops you do.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Take this as a slow runner - you don't want to run a race if you don't think you can finish in the allotted amount of time. You don't want to look over your shoulder worried about the balloon ladies.

 

[taffy]

The Ballon ladies "aka te last people to cross the start line" keep a very strict 16 min mile. If you fall behind them you have every chance of being swept.